Draft Firearms Control Bill in the Pipeline

A private member’s bill that seeks to provide for grace periods in which to apply for the renewal of a firearm licence has been drafted.

The Draft Firearms Control Amendment Bill was drawn up by Dr Petrus Johannes Groenewald, a Freedom Front Plus member of parliament.

The draft bill’s explanatory summary was published in Government Gazette 41881.

It declares that the proposed legislation aims to “provide an administrative solution where a person failed to timeously apply for renewal of a licence for a firearm: Such failure will attract an administrative fine.”

The proposed solution is to provide for grace periods in which to apply for renewal.

Three grace periods are proposed with different timeframes in relation to expiry of the licence and escalating fines.

The first grace period refers to an application for renewal prior to expiry of the licence but within the current 90 days requirement, the second grace period refers to an application within 90 days after expiry and the third grace period provides a further 30 days in cases where the first two grace periods were not utilized.

In situations where a licence will expire in 90 days or less after the commencement of the proposed amendment act or has already expired after commencement, licence holders will be expected to make an application for renewal within 90 days of such commencement subject to an administrative fine of R500.